1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to an electronic device having updatable BIOS and BIOS updating method thereof, and more particular, to an electronic device having updatable BIOS and BIOS updating method thereof which can be operated in different system modes.
2. Related Art
In an electronic system, the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is an indispensable firmware. The BIOS stores the basic code in the electronic system, any loaded hardware will be connected or probed by the BIOS. Besides, the BIOS is stored in read-only memory (ROM), so that the code stored in the BIOS will not disappear when the system is turned off. When the electronic device starts up, the code in the BIOS is loaded at first to initial basic hardware.
Take a general system boot process in the computer system as an illustration. When the power of the computer starts up, the controller chip on the motherboard first starts the BIOS to run Power-On Self Test (POST) process and to identify essential devices in the electronic system in sequence, such as memory, video card, hard disk drives, CD-ROM, serial port, parallel port, and floppy disk drive exist and work normally. After ensuring these devices in the computer well-functioned, the BIOS, in accordance with the path of the local user default profile, loads the system files stored in the hard disk or floppy disk drive to start the operating system program, completing the boot process.
As described above, the code stored in the BIOS is necessary for the electronic device. The data corruption in the BIOS due to viruses or error procedures will lead to the result that the electronic devices can not load essential devices into the system through the BIOS, hence causing the boot process abnormal. In addition, sometimes replacement or CPU on the motherboard of the electronic device has to accompany with updating for the code in the BIOS, or the electronic device will not boot up properly due to unsupported CPU. At that time, the electronic device must be returned to the factory for repair, which is very complex and time-consuming, troubling the users.
Besides, when CPU or other device on the motherboard of the electronic device is changed, the code in the BIOS has to be updated correspondingly. For different functions of the electronic device, the code in the BIOS must be updated correspondingly as well. Thus, the BIOS must be updated periodically.
Usually, the BIOS can be updated only when the electronic device is in the boot stage. Meanwhile, a removable storage device (such as a floppy disk or an external USB drive) is required for pre-downloading and storing the update data for updating the BIOS. That is, the BIOS can be updated only in the boot stage with the removable storage device, which is very inconvenient.